Thor: Ragnarok Begins a Three-Movie Arc for Hulk

So says actor Mark Ruffalo.

By
Jim Vejvoda

Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo informed IGN during a recent interview that Thor: Ragnarok is the beginning of a three-movie story arc for the giant, green Avenger, one that will follow Bruce Banner as he faces profound questions about his alter ego and changes to his powers.

I asked Ruffalo how the Hulk -- who runs on anger and provocation -- can remain the Hulk on Sakaar, where he's been living comfortably as a gladiatorial champion and beloved celebrity in the two years since last being seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron. As Ruffalo explained, "The rules don't apply anymore. That's what's so confounding to Banner and frightening. That's kind of the exciting progression of the Banner/Hulk relationship moving forward."

Ruffalo continued, "The anger is no longer the only reason that he turns into the Hulk. So now we have this other thing going on between them that will carry out through the next two movies. This is the beginning of a three-movie arc."

As has been previously revealed, Universal Pictures retains the distribution rights to any standalone Hulk movie. Hence, that's why Disney and Marvel Studios have been including the Hulk into team-up movies and why, as Ruffalo himself recently put it, another standalone Hulk movie "will never happen."

According to Ruffalo, Marvel Studios president and producer Kevin Feige asked him what he would like to see happen if, ideally, he could have starred in his own standalone Hulk film. (Ruffalo's predecessor Edward Norton got his own solo Hulk MCU movie with 2008's The Incredible Hulk.)

"Kevin brought me in and he said, 'What would you do if you could do a standalone Hulk movie?' I said, 'I think it should be this, this, this, and this, and it should end like this,'" Ruffalo recalled. "And he said, 'How about if we do that -- love that -- let's do that starting with Thor 3 and end in Avengers 3, and we'll use those three movies to basically do a standalone Hulk movie. How about that?' I was like, 'That sounds great.'"

(We've since been able to clarify that Ruffalo misspoke here when he said Avengers 3; that film, aka Infinity War, is the second installment in this three-film Hulk story arc, which will end with Marvel's The Avengers 4.)

"So that's what you're seeing. You're seeing the beginning of that," Ruffalo continued. "There's a lot of questions. Why isn't he, why can't he? Why doesn't he turn into the Hulk when he's angry? Why can't he turn back into the Hulk when he's angry? Why can the Hulk stay the Hulk when he's not angry? That all starts to get answered as we move along."